The Developer ExperienceWHAT IT IS

WHY IT MATTERS

HOW TO MAKE IT NOT SUCK

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User Experience

“The sum of all interactions and events, both positive and negative, between a

user and a web site.”

AKA“bla bla bla”

User ExperienceDo I want to use it?

How do I sign up?

How do I get started?

How do I use it?

How do I get help?

DO I WANT TO USE IT?

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

HOW DO I USE IT?

HOW DO I GET HELP?

DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE

“The sum of all interactions and events, both positive and negative, between a developer and a library, tool, or API.”

DEVELOPER EXPERIENCEDo I want to use it?

How do I sign up?

How do I get started?

How do I use it?

How do I get help?

DO I WANT TO USE IT?

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

HOW DO I GET STARTED?

HOW DO I USE IT?

HOW DO I GET HELP?

why should you care?

Who are you?

PROVIDERS CONSUMERS

Developer Experience

(Library, Tool, API, ...)

...who am I?

CONSUMER PROVIDER

Childhood University hood Now

CONSUMER

2002 2006 20112006

why does DX matter?

I have to use X.

Bad Experience

Low Barrier for LeavingBare Minimum Usage

why does DX matter?

I like to use X.

Good Experience

Innovative Usage External Evangelism

let’s break it down...

Do I want to use it?

Documentation Interactive Explorer

Does it have the features I need?

Can I safely build a business on top of it?

Licensing Pricing

Stability

Case Studies

How do I sign up?

How do I sign up?

No signup! No key!Best answer:

Automated Key Signup

Usage Dashboard

How do I get started?

Downloads for Every Environment

Client Libraries for Every Language

“Hello World”(From 0 to 60 in 15 minutes)

How do I use it?

How do I learn how to use it?

Do I enjoy using it?

Documentation

How do I learn how to use it?

Comprehensive Easy to Navigate

Reference & Guide Easy to Search

Running Code Feedback Loop

Documentation

When in doubt, document.

Comprehensiveshould be

Every method, parameter, return value, defaults, implementation notes, errors, side effects, deprecation notices.

Documentationshould include both Reference & Guide

Documentationshould include Runnable Code

Documentation should be Easy to Navigate

Documentation should be Easy to Search

Documentation should be Easy to Searchon Google, too

Familiarity

Do I enjoy using it?

API Design

Simplicity

Compatibility

Debuggability

API Design: HTTPFamiliarity

Simplicity

Compatibility

Debuggability

Use standards(when it makes sense)

REST, RPC, OAuth.

Support both JSON & XML.

Give meaningfulerror messages.

Don’t throttle.

Most importantly: Never ever use SOAP.

How do I get help?

Forum

Email & Feeds !SpamStats & Badges

Issue Tracker

Comments

Status

Votes

NotificationCategories

Search

THE EXPERIENCE CURVE

THE FEEDBACK LOOP..should be infinite..

Feedback Forms

Surveys

QT Survey Mozilla Add-Ons SDK Blackboard API Survey

Usability Testing

AT&T Usability Testing

Did you complete the task? How hard was it?

Would you recommend this API?

What would have made the experience of using the API better?

Whose API does it better than we do?

Paying Attention

Twitter

Google Alerts

Conference Talks

Blog posts

MAKEOVER TIME!

Google Maps API

v2 v3

keys no keys!

bloated library MVC architecture(smaller download)

GMap, GMarker,... google.maps.*

GPolygon(latlngs, strokeColor, strokeWeight, strokeOpacity,

fillColor, fillOpacity, opts)

google.maps.Polygon(options)

ZeptoJS

NOW WHAT?

providers:

1. Care

2. Prioritize

3. Improve

I

CONSUMERS

It’d be great if you changed X.

I’d use it more if it had feature Y.

Thanks - look what I made with it!

Thanks!

The Developer ExperienceIT MATTERS

LETS MAKE IT NOT SUCK

developerexperience.org developer-support-handbook.org

for more...

@pamelafox